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Cropping photographs

Sometimes, you'll place an image into a layout inside of Illustrator, but you…only want to see a portion of that image.…Now in programs like Photoshop, there is a Crop tool that lets you actually…remove pixels that you don't want inside of the image.…However, in Illustrator, we can't edit pixels.…We just treat the whole image as if it were one object.…So, if we only want to see a portion of an image, while we can't actually remove…any pixels, we can hide pixels from view.…We do so by creating something called a Mask.…

Imagine, for example, if I had this photograph in front of me, as I see right…here, and I were to take a piece of paper, and I were to cut a hole out of…the middle of the piece of paper, and then put that piece of paper on top of this photograph,…I'd only be able to see the photograph through the hole that I've cut out.…That's an essence what a mask is inside of Illustrator.…Now it so happens to be that when you're working with images, Illustrator has…a great little shortcut that lets you quickly create a mask and crop your photograph.…

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Author

Released

4/30/2010

In Illustrator CS5 Essential Training, author Mordy Golding explains the core concepts and techniques that apply to any workflow in Illustrator, whether designing for print, the web, or assets for other applications. This course includes a detailed explanation of the elements that make up vector graphics—paths, strokes, and fills—and shows how to use each of the Illustrator drawing tools. Also demonstrated are techniques for combining and cleaning up paths, organizing paths into groups and layers, text editing, working with color, effects, and much more. Exercise files accompany the course.

Topics include:

Setting up a new document based on the output destination

Using rules, guides, and grids

Making detailed selections

Drawing and editing paths with the Pen and Pencil tools

Creating compound vector shapes

Understanding the difference between point and area text

Applying live effects

Creating color swatches

Transforming artwork with Rotation, Scale, and Transform effects

Placing images

Working with masks

Printing, saving, and exporting artwork

Skill Level Beginner

10h 37m

Duration

3,274,576

Views

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Q: Despite clicking the rectangle icon on the toolbar, as shown in the video, the other tool shapes are not accessible in Illustrator. The rectangle is usable, but the star, ellipse, etc. are not, and do not appear anywhere in the toolbar. What is causing this problem?

A: These tools are grouped together, so to access them, click and hold the mouse for a second until the other tools appear. If that isn't happening, reset the Illustrator preferences file. To do so, quit Illustrator and then relaunch the application while pressing and holding the Ctrl+Alt+Shift keys. Once the Illustrator splash screen appears, release the keys and that will reset the preferences file.

Q: In the video “What are vector graphics,” the author states that if he creates a 1 inch x 1 inch Photoshop file at 300ppi image, there are 300 pixels in that image. Is that correct?

A: This statement is by the author was not totally correct. If the resolution is 300ppi, it means that there are 300 pixels across one inch, both vertically and horizontally. That would mean you'd have 90,000 pixels in a 1 inch x 1 inch image at 300 ppi.